• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.71-81
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• 2005

Anaerobic digestion is employed worldwide as the oldest and most important process for sludge stabilization. An additional advantage is the production of methane during anaerobic digestion. However, the waste activated sludge(WAS) has poor anaerobic degradability and less gas production due to the cell wall of bio-solid. In order to improve and enhance stabilization and dewatering of the WAS, a number of pretreatment processes have been developed and investigated. In this research, a pilot-scale study of pulse power pretreatment was performed to improve anaerobic degradability and dewaterability of the WAS. A pilot plant was designed and operated based on a previous laboratory study. Change of the sludge characteristics by pulse power pretreatment was estimated to assess the increasing soluble organics. The increased soluble organics could be used as a good substrate in the anaerobic digesion process. Gas production and methane potential of the anaerobic digestion were estimated as the parameters of anaerobic degradability. For evaluation of the dewaterability of pretreated WAS, capillary suction time(CST) and specific resistance were measured. The efficiency of energy recovery was also estimated by calculating energy balance.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.27-40
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• 2022

In this study, the anaerobic digestion potential and thermo-chemical pre-treatment were evaluated for efficient anaerobic co-digestion of dewatered sludge(DS) and food waste(FW). As a result, the degradable organic matter concentration and methane yield of FW were evaluated to 2.2 and 1.3 times higher than that of DS, respectively. In order to increase the amount of biogas production, it was determined that it is desirable to increase the mixing ratio of FW. The efficiency of thermo-chemical pre-treatment was evaluated for the reaction temperature, NaOH concentration, reaction time and mixture ratio. As a result of evaluation through pre-treatment efficiency and dehydration capacity, the optimum pre-treatment conditions were evaluated as follows: reaction temperature 140℃, NaOH concentration 60 meq/L, reaction time 60 min, mixture ratio 1:5(DS:FW). The gas production rate and methane yield increased 1.6 and 1.5 times, respectively, compared to before and after applying the optimum pre-treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the mixing ratio of food waste for efficient anaerobic co-digestion of DS and FW. and it is necessary to increase the solubilization efficiency of waste by application of pre-treatment.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.91-97
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• 2008

The objective of this research is to investigate the effect of the addition of granular activated carbon (GAC) and granular sludge on the performance of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors for treating leachate. For the control reactor, sludge obtained from an anaerobic digester was used as a seed material. On the other hand, GAC and granular sludge were incorporated with the seed sludge in the GAC reactor and the Granule reactor, respectively. The shortest acclimation period was observed in the Granule reactor. The GAC reactor also gave comparable performance to the Granule reactor at the beginning of operation. However, as the adsorptive capacity of GAC was exhausted, the effluent COD concentration increased gradually. Once the systems were stabilized, the GAC reactor showed slightly better results than the other two reactors in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. COD removal in all reactors was more than 90% at hydraulic retention time of 1.0 day. Furthermore, GAC reactor showed little variation in COD removal rate and remained at 95% with organic loading rate (OLR) of 4.0 to $8.2kg\;COD/m^3.d$. Initial operating period was reduced by the addition of granular sludge, while the treatment efficiency was enhanced by the addition of GAC.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.524-531
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• 2012

The objective of this study was to investigate the organic solubilization (SCOD) and improvement of methane production for pig slurry by thermal hydrolysis. A sludge cake was pretreated by thermal hydrolysis at different reaction temperatures (200, 220, 250, $270^{\circ}C$). Ultimate methane potential (Bu) was determined at several substrate and inoculum (S/I) ratios (1:9, 3:7, 5:5, 7:3 in volume ratio) by biochemical methane potential (BMP) assay for 73 days. Pig slurry SCOD were obtained with 98.4~98.9% at the reaction temperature of $200{\sim}270^{\circ}C$. Theoretical methane potentials ($B_{th}$) of thermal hydrolysates at the reaction temperature of $200^{\circ}C$, $220^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, $270^{\circ}C$ were 0.631, 0.634, 0.705, $0.748Nm^3\;kg^{-1}-VS_{added}$, respectively. $B_u$ of $200^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysate were decreased from $0.197Nm^3\;kg^{-1}-VS_{added}$ to $0.111Nm^3\;kg^{-1}-VS_{added}$ with the changes of S/I ratio from 1:9 to 7:3, and also $B_u$ of different thermal hydrolysates ($220^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, $270^{\circ}C$) showed same tendency to $B_u$ of $200^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysate according to the changes of S/I ratio. Anaerobic biodegradability ($B_u/B_{th}$) of $200^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysate at different S/I ratios was decreased from 32.2% for S/I ratio of 1:9 to 17.6% for S/I ratio of 7:3. $B_u/B_{th}$ of $220^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, and $270^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysat were decreased from 36.4% to 9.6%, from 31.3% to 0.8%, and from 26.6% to 0.8%, respectively, with the S/I ratio change, respectively. In this study, the rise of thermal reaction temperature caused the decrease of anaerobic digestibility and methane production while organic materials of pig slurry were more solubilized.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.11-22
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• 2014

The buffer capacity of food waste lowers during the collecting and transportation period. Food waste usually shows deficiency of micro nutrients especially molybdenum(Mo) and cobalt(Co). Therefore, food waste can be considered as a good mixture of livestock waste to enhance methane production. The objective of this study was to investigate the correlation between properties of substrates (local food waste and livestock manure) and methane yields for successive anaerobic fermentation process and its stable management. Food wastes were taken at an intermediate storage or treatment system provided by eight local authorities (Gangnam, Gangdong, Gwanak, Guro, Dongjak, Songpa, Yeongdeungpo, and Younsan) in Seoul. The solid content and potential methane yield of food wastes were average of 16% and $446.6STP-m{\ell}/g-VS$ (range from 334.8 to $567.5STP-m{\ell}/g-VS$) respectively. As for the beef cattle manure, the solid content and potential methane yield had an average of 26% and $280.6STP-m{\ell}/g-VS$ respectively. Potential methane yield had a positive correlation with fat content, and hydrogen content and a negative correlation with carbohydrate content ($r^2>0.8$). Therefore, the potential methane yield can be predicted based on the substrate characterization results with reasonable accuracy. Further research may be needed to investigate the relation of the properties of the mixture substrate and methane production rate. The mixtures may include food waste, livestock waste, and bulking agents (saw dust, rice hull, or agricultural byproducts etc.) to determine best combination of these substrates for maximum methane production rate.